The son and grand-daughter of a former skipper of the Viola trawler are backing the campaign to return the ship to Hull in the hope that they can celebrate their family’s links to the vessel.
Eric Tharratt, who is now 99, and his daughter Pat have both made donations to the Viola Trust.
Eric, who lives in St Nicholas Avenue, Gipsyville, said: “The Viola project is very good. I’m very interested and I want to go on it. I hope to go in the wheelhouse that my father was in. That’s why we have sent some money to it. We thought it would be a very good idea to help.”
Pat added: “You get caught up in the romance of bringing the vessel home. She’s the last of her kind and nothing like her will be built again. It’s important for the Viola to be here – there are a lot of people in Hull with Viola connections.”
The story of Eric’s father emerged when Dr Robb Robinson, a historian based in the University of Hull’s Maritime Historical Studies Centre and one of the Viola trustees, researched the background to the vessel. He was captivated by the antics of George William Tharratt, who had changed his name from Green Willows Tharratt, and he wanted to find out more.
Pat was contacted by a friend who heard the reference to the name Tharratt in a radio broadcast, and she managed to get in touch with Robb, who then started to fill in the gaps.
He already knew that George Tharratt was born on Sunk Island and became skipper of the Viola before the Great War. When hostilities began he was sent to be skipper of a minesweeper at Newhaven.
Pat said: “The war ended in November 2018 but British waters were still full of mines and he was in the mine clearance services. It was an incredibly dangerous job and he was one of the last people to be discharged from it. The service removed 60,000 mines. He finished in early 1920 and went back into trawling in Grimsby and then Hull.”
Eric told how the family – he had four brothers and sisters – lived in Hilder Street and then Rutland Street in Grimsby before moving across the Humber. They lived in Hessle and then took a flat above De Boer, a business in Hessle Road described in archives as “butcher and rabbit importer”.
When George died, his widow Dorothy said she would have to send the youngest child to Newland Homes but Eric, then 10, said he would go because he would only have to be there for four years. At 14 he got a job on a farm at Thearne and four years later he joined Smith & Nephew, where he stayed for 46 years until retirement.
He said: “I started in the warehouse and finished up manufacturing tablets. I was there until I was 64 but I also had a spell in the army as an instructor sergeant. I was an explosives expert and that’s why I’m deaf in my right ear. I was standing next to a man who was killed by a shell.
“I’d wanted to go into the navy but the people at Newland Homes had to keep me until there was a job and the next one to come up was in farming.”
He remembers going to sea with his dad when they lived in Grimsby: “The first time was a two-week fishing trip and the second was to Ostend to get coal during the general strike in 1926. In those days skippers and chief engineers could take their sons on pleasure trips. I was sea sick at first but OK after the first few days.
“I was delighted when Robb got in touch because my father died a pauper and was treated as a pauper, but he had been a skipper until the last week of his life and that is how he should be remembered. Confirmation of his link with the Viola vindicates that.”
Robb added: “I was fascinated by the story and by meeting Eric and Pat because it emphasises the links between the Viola and Hull’s fishing families and maritime heritage. It’s wonderful that not only have they provided me with so much valuable information but they have also made very generous donations to help bring the Viola back.
“We would love to hear from other people whose families have connections to the Viola, and we hope more people will support the appeal.”
Dr Robb Robinson can be contacted on 07799 566652, email R.N.Robinson@hull.ac.uk
